Fred Tomaselli's beguiling artworks on New York Times covers highlight the world's global calamities and political nightmares

Since 2005, the artist has been working on a series called The Times, for which he uses front pages from The New York Times as the basis of photograms and collages. The project started under the Bush administration, and was used as a platform on which Tomaselli can creatively explore the global calamities and political nightmares of his lifetime. His painterly interventions underscore the tactility of newsprint, simultaneously dramatising events and often showcasing the ludicrous and depressing realities of the world.

These works will form part of a new show at London’s White Cube gallery entitled Paper, and according to the gallery, “Tomaselli has noted that these political, bucolic images are the ‘daily facts’ of his own life, offering a time line of his own experiences.”

The White Cube adds: “Seeing his intervention into this ‘paper of record’, as just another subjective, editorial decision, among the many that go into the production of news, Tomaselli attempts to engage directly with both the images and accompanying text… Seeking to stop time and allow the works to resonate as their facts ‘vaporize into obsolescence’, landmark events are frozen and presented for closer scrutiny: the ‘perp-walk’ by bad actors, the warming of the planet or the actions of global leaders.”



Paper runs from 17 March – 13 May 2017.